Picasso at Museum of Fine Arts Houston

If you haven't yet made a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston to see  the Prado Museum exhibit and/or the Picasso Black and White, I encourage you to go. Both exhibitions are amazing. Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado ends March 31st; Picasso Black and White will be there until May 27th.

On Saturday, March 23rd at 1 p.m., the Museum is also showing a documentary movie about Picasso.

Here's the blurb, which I'm quoting from their website:
"Unavailable for more than a decade, The Mystery of Picasso is one of the greatest documentaries on art ever made. The film received the Prix du Jury at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, and the French government declared the film a national treasure in 1984.
Like a matador confronting a bull, the artist approaches his easel, his eyes blazing. As he wields his brush, we see through the canvas as the artwork unfolds, erupts, dances into being before our eyes. Pablo Picasso, the most influential artist of the 20th century, is making a painting, and the famous French director Henri-Georges Clouzot (​Diabolique and The Wages of Fear) is making a movie.
In 1955, Clouzot joined forces with his friend Picasso to make an entirely new kind of art film—"a film that could capture the moment and the mystery of creativity." Together, they devised an innovative technique: the filmmaker placed his camera behind a semi-transparent surface on which the artist drew with special inks that bled through.
Clouzot thus captured a perfect reverse image of Picasso's brushstrokes, and the motion-picture screen itself becomes the artist's canvas. Here, the master creates, and sometimes obliterates, 20 works (most of them, in fact, destroyed after the shoot), ranging from playful black-and-white sketches to CinemaScope color murals—artworks that evolve in minutes through the magic of stop-motion animation.
"When we are all dead, you and me and everyone," promised Clouzot (1907–1977) to Picasso (1881–1973), "the film will still continue to be projected."
If you go to their website, you'll see both the trailer for the movie, and after it, some links to other very interesting Picasso videos, including a BBC program."

http://www.mfah.org/films/mystery-picasso/

Delores, Muril, and Lesley

Wow! I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted. I've been tracking a new art website that I've been hesitant to advertise until I was sure it was a good thing, and I stopped posting while I considered it. I've decided it's a genuine article, so I'll get back to you you on that very soon.

Two things today: be sure to see Delores 'Moon' Smith's paintings in Room L 129 before the end of the month. Next month, Muril Wilson will be hanging her paintings there.

Also: if you haven't checked out the online art lessons of Lesley Humphrey, who gave a spectacular demonstration at the Tomball Art League a year or more ago, they really are worth your while. Here's the link. http://lesleyhumphrey.net/lessons/introduction/

Artfully Dressed

Artist's Date: every time I open this blog to send something to all of you I'm met by what must be the next blog in the blogspot list or something I've inadvertantly tagged that now follows me everywhere. Somewhere in New York there is a man who has a great talent for finding artfully dressed older women, whom he photographs and writes about on this blog. Shall we dare to be so clever? Here's the link: 
http://advancedstyle.blogspot.com/

Hallowe'en costumes reflect art

A quick post today. The Huffington Post did an article on how to do your Hallowe'en costume and makeup to reflect your artiness... Are you up for this? Here's the link: 10 Amazing Art-Inspired Makeup Tutorials For Halloween

In case you ever wanted to see Where Google stores its data

I remember how thrilled I was the first time I had the privilege of glimpsing a 'data farm'. All those racks of servers; all those rows of server racks; the incessant deafening hum of the cooling fans; the refrigerator temperatures;  all that information on one floor. Wired.com is a daily technology news website and the digital home of Wired magazine, and it's currently featuring a photo essay about one of many of Google's data centers. In case you want to know what that looks like--theirs is more colorful than most and has a sense of humor. The photo above, by Google's Connie Zhou, gives you an overview of the central cooling plant in their Douglas County, Georgia, data center. Here's the link: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/10/ff-inside-google-data-center/

Fiesta!

Here's a wonderful opportunity to do some colorful sketching: come to the LSC-Tomball Community Library this Saturday for  Fiesta!  Starting at 11:30 a.m. There will be  live music, dancing, crafts, and refreshments, all in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month at the library.

Mike Major: California Chalk Pastel artist

Even though chalk pastels are excellently suited to plein air painting in the Texas heat, I don’t think I’ve yet featured a Texas landscape artist who works in pastels. The other day when I was searching for painters of the harsh landscape of California's version of  Big Bend I found Mike Major. Major's blog, if you scroll down far enough, details his process from the pumice and acrylic undercoat to the beautifully detailed pastel finish. Here's the link: http://mikemajor.blogspot.com/